What is it like to be a Green Trails Intern?

So you want to be a Green Trails intern but not sure what it’s about? This article is just for you. Here is a brief of what Green Trails is, what we do, our main focus areas and the role of an intern. Dive in!

What, Why and How?To understand what is Green Trails, why we need it and how we do it, click here.

What is a Green Trails internship?A Green Trails internship is a way to explore our Green Trails work. You get to learn about it first-hand. Following that, you get to make your contribution towards our mission to the mountains. It’s a 30day program. Based on your performance during the first 30 days, the next 15 days will be extended. As a Green Trails intern, you oversee present Green Trails activities along the trek you work on. In addition you take up a project in one of our main focus areas.

What it is not?It’s not picking litter in mountains even though you will be participating in clean-up activities. It’s not an always “on trek” program as well. You get to do the trek once for sure. You may not get another opportunity to do the trek during your internship.

Why be a Green Trails intern?Being a Green Trails intern is very challenging. It is also very rewarding. I am not exaggerating when I say that our interns claim this as one of the most rewarding experiences they’ve had. Tackling challenging situations and making an impact brings about a lot of gratification. Believe me, because, I started out as an intern. My personal experience as an intern is what that motivated me to give up a career in a big corporate company and pursue this.

It’s very hard to come by opportunities where you run the whole show, addressing problems at the grass root level creating a huge impact along the way. In a way, it’s your own pet project. That gives you a lot of freedom. This is an intense training program with lots to learn. You can sharpen your social skills, management skills and communication skills. Needless to say, you get to work on the most beautiful slopes of the Himalayas, to live with local people and experience their culture.

Whom are we looking for?Are you conscientious about the environment? Do you think the mountains require our active protection? If you think that you can work towards these causes, this internship is for you.

Whom are we NOT looking for?Those who are simply excited by the mountains and want to spend time there. This role is not easy and requires a lot of research and development. It also requires a lot of thought and plain hard work. It is not going to be akin to a vacation in the mountains.

Now that you have an overview about Green Trails, here are the main areas that you focus on during your internship with us.

Our focus areas

New technology and innovations

Organized trekking as an activity has grown drastically. However, practices followed by several trekking companies are still primitive. To give you some examples, many bury organic waste, burn wood for heat or cooking, wash dishes by streams using chemical cleaners and some even bury inorganic waste! These practices have become so rooted that we hardly stop to question them.

Ten years ago, with 1 or 2 groups trekking in a season on a trek route, human waste was not a problem. However, now with around 40 groups per organization and around 5-6 such organizations operating at the same time, imagine the minefield at a campsite. Similar is the case with burning wood for heat or cooking.

At present, we are throwing more at nature than it can take. We need to think of new ways to trek so that both nature and man can co-exist. This is where you come in.

We are currently involved in several experiments. We also have more innovations in mind. Some of them are:

A Bio-digester system to generate bio-gas from organic waste, which in turn can be used for heating and cooking purposes,

Rain water harvesting systems at places where water is hard to come by,

Better toilet designs than a simple toilet pit,

Solar energy for power, heating and cooking,

Challenge: Most of these technologies already exist. Now the challenge is to keep it simple. You need to make them work in difficult terrain in a very difficult environment.

Who are we looking for? We are looking for curious hands-on minds, who can think outside the box and come up with new ideas to tackle problems.You lead experiments at a particular slope independently. You must be able to acquire a deep understanding of the topic you will be working on. Possessing a scientific/engineering background is an advantage.

Social ventures

The main problem in dealing with waste in mountains is (1) collecting the waste and, (2) disposing them properly. I say this because mountains don’t have the facility to regularly collect or discard waste. Even if they do, they don’t have sanitary landfills to properly dispose them. Even if we do take the waste to landfills, is it the right solution? Well, no! Waste is not waste if we segregate. So we segregate waste, diverting things that can be reused or utilized for higher purposes. By doing so, the amount of waste reaching landfills is drastically reduced.

Is there more that we can do? Yes! We are now making pillows out of plastic waste, maps out of paper waste. Now, the challenge is, can we start local set-ups with people from local villages to take these ideas forward. Can we make it a profitable social enterprise?This is where you come in.

We want you to introduce these ventures at our treks.

Challenge: You have to work with villagers, recruit them, train them and establish the whole set-up. It’s not an easy task.

Who are we looking for? If social entrepreneurship interests you, what better way to take an idea forward?

Innovations to regular practice

Any new idea invites resistance. Not only that, it requires lot of tweaking to make it work in different scenarios. Same goes for all innovations that we want to put in place. This is where you come in. As a green trails intern you are expected to take innovations that work experimentally and make it function at the slopes. You must make it a systematic process that everyone follows.

Challenge: Our slopes offer lot of variability in environment, weather, people, etc. You need to address all challenges. You must make the idea work.

Who are we looking for? We are looking for people who persist, who can tinker with ideas, who can train people, convince them to adopt new practices.

What does the internship include?

We provide food and accommodation during the 30 days and Rs.2500 stipend per week. However, the trip to mountains and back is on you.

How should you apply for the internship?

Send an email to lakshmi@indiahikes.com and a questionnaire will be sent to you. Fill the details in and send it back. You will receive a call for a Skype interview if you are selected for the next round. Following the interview, you will be notified with further details.

Lakshmi Selvakumaran is the Green Trails Lead at Indiahikes. She holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. She's currently working towards making trekking a more sustainable sport by bringing in fresh innovations and ideas that leave no carbon footprint in the mountains.

44 thoughts on “What is it like to be a Green Trails Intern?”

Really a great initiative taken by your team to save the environment. This type of awareness is very much required in the people. I am also interested in your Green Trail Intern but I don’t know the trekking. It is also my field of interest to do something that can save the environment. So is it there any chance for me to join this programme?

Hi there! I am just `17 years old and will be turning 18 in February 2017. As this page doesn’t say much about the age limit or things of similar sort, I wanted to know if it was possible for me to join in as a Green Trail Intern. Also I am in my first year of getting a degree and the page says I must have a degree from some university or experience on working with environmental issues. Though at the moment I have neither, one due to my age and the other due to unknown reasons, I would really like to contribute as much as i can to help make the trails better. I have some experience in mountaineering, I have done three treks in the Himalayas so far. Kuari Pass (14,000 ft.), Kyarkoti Lake in Taknaur Valley and Roopkund (15,750 ft.) (with India hikes). So I would like to know if i could be associated with India Hikes?

hi India Hikes , I was interested in taking hikes to kedarkantha , that is when i came across “Treks with SWATHI” and INDIA HIKES. The kind of effort that you all are taking to keep the slopes clean is mind blowing. I being a supporter of sustainable living was inspired to join the green trails internship , but I am facing a problem which I hope you can help to solve. Currently I am pursuing C.A. and therefore can only attend to the internship after my exams in November, so I wanted to ask whether I could join the intership after November. longing to be a part of INDIA HIKES Gautam Shenoy

hello indiahikes, i greatly appreciate your effort towards the environment. i am really interested in your green trails internship as i am eager to put in whatever i can to save the himalayan trails. just wanted to know being a government employee, am i able to pursue such internship ?

Hi, I read about your Green Trails Internship, and I am very interested in joining this. I haven’t been on any Himalayan trek yet but will be joining the Bhrigu Lake trek in July with Indiahikes. Can I still apply for the internship? Also, I am not very clear about what all is included in the internship, like what roles and responsibilities it would include. Where can I find all that?

1) I have my semester holidays between the months of December and January. Can I be interning at this time? 2) “However the trip to mountain and back is on you” ???- Should I pay for this trip or Should I just buy my essentails for the trip and trek for free?(is this what you meant)

Hi Karthi We offer internships for a minimum of 25 days. Anything lesser than that will not make much sense since this will involve brainstorming ideas and implementing them during the course of your internship. So if you have a minimum of 25 days to spare then you must apply.

The trip to the mountain and back will be borne by you. This will include all your travel expenses. So you need to travel to the base camp and back on your own expenses.

karishma, Thanks for the info. But Can you please be lilttle more specific? Ofcourse I will be interning more than 25 days if I am selected. 1) The real question is “Can I be interning between the months of December and January?” 2) I will reach the base camp on my own expenses. Should I pay for the trek seperately(like any other normal tourist would do ) Or Will you take all the interns to the trek at the end of the internship for free?

PS: I remember reading this in one of the articles, like interns will be taken to the Roopkund trek at the end of the internship.(Above 14000 ft)

Hi Karthi If your question is whether you can apply for the internship through the year, the answer is, yes you can.

You can apply for the internship between the months of December and January as long as you are willing to be a part of it for a minimum of 25 days. The point is that you must have enough semester holidays to spare 🙂

About travel expenses, like I have mentioned before, you just have to take care of the expenses of travelling to the base camp of the trek assigned to you and back from the base camp. From the base camp, whatever travelling will be done after that will be on us. That means wherever else you will be travelling during the course of the internship. So you don’t have to register as a tourist or trekker.

Yes we do offer to take our GT interns on the trek they are assigned to atleast once during the course of their internship. But it wont necessarily be the Roopkund trek. It will be the trek you will be interning at.

Hope this answers all your queries. Please comment back if you need to know anything more 🙂

I tried reaching out to on the above-mentioned email id i.e, lakshmi@indiahikes.in but I am afraid the mil could not be delivered to this email address. Gmail said the address could not be found. Thus, It will be great if you people could provide with another email address as I look forward to applying for the internship.

Hi Nikita – Can you re-send your email to lakshmi@indiahikes.com ? We recently shifted from .in to .com email servers. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I’ve changed the email id in the article as well.

Hello Green trails, I am currently a student pursuing my masters in environmental sciences & is a graduate in Botany. I am an avid nature- lover & is dedicated for environment. I landed up here from the article about Green trails fellowship whose minimum eligibility to apply is 22 yrs which i’ll be in November 2018. Thus, my question is should I apply for fellowship or internship as I m looking for internship at least for 3-4 months in month of February – April. Am I eligible for any in this case? Hoping for positive response. Thank you.

Hi Bhavna, For Green Trails Fellowship, we look for people who can spend at least four months, if not more. If you can commit that time, you can apply for the fellowship else I suggest you apply to be an Intern. You can follow the steps mentioned here in case you decide to apply for the Fellowship – https://indiahikes.com/fellowship-india-himalayas-sustainable-trekking/

Hey! India Hikes Green Trails Intern program is a awesome idea for our Himalayas but as there is no age limit to it and I’m 17 currently doing my class 12th can I join !?, I’m interested in this internship cause I am a local (pahari) from the foothills of Himalayas and I’m doing trekking since last year and I’ve seen the disaster and how the people have no idea throwing waste on trails, I’d love to join this internship and help the Himalayas. I’m a beginner in photography though I’m doing it from past 5 years I’d love to share my art with India Hikes. I’ve trekked Milam Glacier (3,870 m) last year in October and Roopkund (5,090 m) this year in May as a solo trekker. Do respond !

Hi Priyansh, It is lovely to see how passionate you are about helping the Himalayas. Unfortunately, we have a minimum age requirement for Green Trails interns, which is 21 years. So, you will need to wait for a few years before you can join us.

Hi ! I am really looking forward to join Indiahikes Green Trail program. But I have just one concern, being a full-time painter and designer will I get time to Paint while I do the internship or fellowship. I really can’t live without painting. Please let me know if this could be suitable. I am already doing waste management activities in my society and we have successfully banned the use of plastic to the great extent. Now II would really want to be a part of this initiative so together we can bring a change in the society.

Hi Purvanshi, A Green Trails internship or fellowship at Indiahikes is a full time role. You will be stationed at one of our base camps and most of your day will be taken up in interacting with local staff and villagers to design waste management solutions and implementing them. You will also be expected to write reports and track the progress of your work. If at all you want to paint, it will have to be after you have fulfilled all of your responsibilities. It cannot be a priority and you will have to let go of it if required.

Hey. I am a first year student of law studying at Kolkata. I have recently been really conscious about the waste I produce and I have been trying to segregate wet waste from dry waste and naturally compost at home so that minimum waste is sent to the landfills. There is so much more to learn and be aware about. I have limited knowledge and experience. However, i would love to be a part of India hikes and The Green Trails and learn more and make a small difference, if i can. So, does the internship necessarily extent to 30 days?

For Green Trails Fellowship, we look for people who can spend at least four months, if not more. If you can commit that time, you can apply for the fellowship else I suggest you apply to be an Intern. You can follow the steps mentioned here in case you decide to apply for the Fellowship – https://indiahikes.com/fellowship-india-himalayas-sustainable-trekking/ Write to us if there is something specific that you would like to work with. You can also send in your application at lakshmi@indiahikes.com

This is a great initiative by the IH Team ! Was just hoping to get clarity on certain things regarding the Green Trails internship :- -Is it possible to intern in the months of December – February? – I am a chartered accountant by profession but very passionate about the cause. Would there be any role suitable for me out there?

Hi IH team! I’m a 43-year old non-teaching employee of a Govt. sponsored school in West Bengal. I’m passionate about the Himalayas, though I couldn’t explore the Himalayas as I was unemployed till the age of 37 years and private tuition was my way of livelyhood. But I trekked to Sandakphu many a times. I mention this not to draw sympathy or to boast of something but to assert my love for the Himalayas. As I came to know from Ms. Lakshmi’s reply to Pooja that you do not offer internships anymore, it’s next to impossible for me to do something for the Himalayas through internship(fellowship is not possible because of my job). My humble request to you to let me know if I am allowed to volunteer at your Green Trail project at Jaubhari. Waiting for your reply eagerly.

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Lakshmi Selvakumaran is the Green Trails Lead at Indiahikes. She holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. She's currently working towards making trekking a more sustainable sport by bringing in fresh innovations and ideas that leave no carbon footprint in the mountains.